1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a license management system, a license management computer, a license management method, and a license management program embodied on a computer readable medium. More particularly, the present invention relates to a license management system, a license management computer, and a license management method for managing a program installed into a computer, and a license management program embodied on a computer readable medium for causing the license management computer to carry out the license management method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, a method of using an installation computer to manage a program installed into a computer is known. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-024918 discloses a license management system for non-free (chargeable) software. According to this system, when chargeable software is installed, a media access control (MAC) address of a client is recorded on chargeable data as a system number and the chargeable data is transmitted to a server. In the server, a serial number of the chargeable software, the number of licenses, and the system number are registered. Thereafter, when chargeable software is to be started on the client, the chargeable data is read and the system number in the chargeable data is compared with the MAC address of the client. If it is confirmed that the software is the chargeable software that has been installed into the client, an inquiry as to whether the condition of the number of licenses is satisfied is made to the server computer. When data indicating that the software can be started is received from the server computer, the requested chargeable software is started.
With the license management system disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-024918, however, the MAC address of a computer into which a program is installed is managed by a server. If the computer into which the program has been installed suffers a breakdown and the program needs to be installed into another computer, it is necessary to request an administrator of the server to change the MAC address.